by Paige Tyler
“She was beautiful,” he finally said. “You know when people say someone has the face of an angel? Well, that was her. It completely took my breath away. She smelled amazing too. Like a cherry lollipop. And her voice…her voice was soft and just a little bit husky. She was so perfect, I swore my heart was about to explode.” He shook his head. “It was more than all that though. I can’t explain it, but something inside me knew she was special. Something told me I could spend the rest of my life looking and never find another woman like this one.”
Cooper lifted a brow. “Wow, that’s pretty…epic.”
Becker chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is. Of course, now I have to find her, or I’ll be the werewolf known for losing the woman who might just be The One.”
He was about to hop out of the crate when a little slip of paper different in color than the rest of the packing material caught his eye. He picked it up to get a better look.
It was a partial receipt from a Starbucks for a cinnamon dolce latte with a time stamp from three days ago just before noon. Unfortunately, the part with the credit card information was missing. There wasn’t even a store number or address. He had no idea which Starbucks the latte had been purchased at or the name of the person who had bought it, but he didn’t need any of that.
“What’s that?” Cooper asked, leaning in for a look.
Becker held up the tiny scrap of paper so his friend could see it. “This is the clue that’s going to help me find a certain female werewolf.”
Cooper frowned. “How do you even know it’s hers?”
Becker held the piece of paper under Cooper’s nose. “Of course it’s hers. Smell it.”
Cooper sniffed, then shrugged. “If you say so. I’ll agree that might be a werewolf’s scent on there, maybe even female, but that doesn’t mean it’s hers. She could have sat on it or something. That receipt could lead you to Mario the plumber.”
Becker vaulted out of the crate with a laugh. “I don’t know why you even bother sniffing anything. Your nose hasn’t been right since you were trapped down in that tunnel full of homemade explosives a few months ago. Trust me, this thing smells like cherry lollipops. It’s hers.”
“Okay, let’s assume you’re right and that piece of paper belonged to your mystery werewolf girl,” Cooper said as they headed for the exit. “There’s nothing on it. How’s it going to help you find her?”
“That’s the easy part,” Becker told him as they walked out of the warehouse. He nodded at the poor patrolman still standing at the gate. “All I have to do is get on a computer and start violating about a hundred state and federal laws. I should have an answer by tomorrow.”
“I probably don’t want to know exactly what you’re planning on doing,” Cooper said. “That way, I can’t be forced to testify against you when the NSA swoops in and arrests your ass.”
“Probably a good idea,” Becker agreed as he climbed on his bike and cranked it into rumbling life.
Cooper leaned in close to be heard over the engine. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Becker didn’t answer. His best friend was offering to do something illegal if Becker told him it would help find his mystery werewolf. All he had to do was ask.
But just because Cooper would willingly risk everything to help him find this woman didn’t mean Becker had the right to ask him. Becker liked to think the female werewolf wasn’t like the other werewolves at the warehouse, that she was simply in over her head, but he didn’t know that. If he was able to track her down, it might be to discover she wasn’t the woman he thought.
If any of this went bad, it probably wouldn’t end well for him—or anyone helping him.
He shook his head. “Nah. I just to need some time to find her. Do you think you could cover for me with Gage and Xander? I can’t do what I have in mind with those crappy computers we have in the office.”
“Yeah, I can do that,” Cooper said. “But be careful, okay? People catch you hacking, getting kicked off the SWAT team will be the least of your problems. The feds put people in prison for the crap you’re talking about doing.”
Becker nodded absently, already busy developing a plan—one that involved him hacking into Starbucks’s credit card system to figure out which stores in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area had sold a cinnamon dolce latte around the time stamp on the receipt. Then he’d slip into the array of traffic cameras around the city to take a peek at the stores in question. All he had to do then was match the face of the werewolf he was looking for with a credit card receipt, and he’d have her.
He was so engrossed in the technical challenge that lay ahead of him—not to mention groaning at the thought of how many hours he’d have to spend looking at grainy video footage—that he barely remembered his friend was still there until Cooper gripped his shoulder.
“I’m serious,” Cooper said. “I know you really want to find this woman, but you need to be careful. Even if she is everything you hope she is, that doesn’t mean her pack mates are going to be too friendly if they figure out you’re the one who killed some of their members.”
Becker hadn’t given that part of the equation any consideration at all. Shit. He’d been so focused on finding her that he hadn’t even thought about how he was going to deal with the rest of her pack.
He shrugged. “I’m not that worried about it. Once I get a chance to talk with her face-to-face, I’ll be able to convince her to leave her pack and run away with me.”
Cooper looked dubious. “Has it ever occurred to you that this woman might not even find you attractive?”
“No.”
Grinning, he punched his foot down, shifted the bike into first gear, and tore out of the warehouse parking lot.
Becker’s smile faded as he turned onto the road. After the way he’d reacted to the female werewolf, it was difficult not thinking he’d stumbled across the one woman in the universe he was meant to be with. But what if after going through all kinds of hell to track her down, he discovered she didn’t feel the same about him? Just because she might be The One for him, there was nothing in the legend that ensured he was The One for her. For all he knew, she might be in love with someone already—like some maladjusted werewolf from her own pack.
That thought depressed him, but he forced himself to push the nagging doubts aside. It wasn’t going to happen that way, he told himself firmly. He was going to find her, and when he did, she was going to feel exactly the same way about him that he felt about her.
It wasn’t until that moment that Becker realized how much he’d already invested in the female werewolf. Had Gage and Xander felt this overwhelming pull the moment they’d met their future mates?
He only hoped his situation worked out as well as theirs had. But then again, neither one of them had fallen for a rogue werewolf who was part of a pack trying to take over the city.
Chapter 4
“Make sure you take out the two guards the moment you step through the door.”
Liam gestured at the hand-drawn sketch of the drug lab that he, Kostandin, and Brandon had been going over for the last hour or so on the far side of the atrium. From the sounds of it, they’d be hitting the place in the next day or two. Jayna prayed they wouldn’t take anyone from her pack with them.
It was bad enough to hear Kos so casually talking about taking two people’s lives. But hearing her alpha talk about killing two people—people who had never done a damn thing to their pack and likely never would—made her feel ill.
She couldn’t sit around and listen to it anymore.
“Where are you going?” Liam asked when she pushed away from the wall and started for the door.
She gritted her teeth at the suspicion in his voice. “To Starbucks,” she said over her shoulder, not bothering to ask if he or anyone else wanted anything. That suspicion had been showing up more and more since they’d started working for the Albanians. It was like he knew how much she disapproved of what he was asking the pack to do. For all she knew, maybe an
alpha could pick up on stuff like that.
Fortunately, she had a reputation as someone who couldn’t sit still for very long. Liam and the rest of her pack had known that for a long time, and the Albanians and omegas had figured it out pretty quick.
She could feel Liam’s gaze following her as she crossed the atrium, and she slid him a sidelong glance out of the corner of her eye. That was when she realized that Kos was watching her just as intently—only his gaze was way more disconcerting than Liam’s. He might have been thinking sexual thoughts about her, which was skeevy enough for sure, but he also might have been imagining what it would be like to cut off her fingers one by one. With him, there was no way to tell.
Outside, Jayna turned left and headed down the sidewalk. There was a Starbucks about six blocks in that direction where she liked to hang out and people watch while drinking her latte. It was a good place to get away from the crap going on in the loft.
She was a block from the coffee shop when she caught a familiar scent on the breeze. It can’t be.
Pulse skipping, she whirled around and saw the hunky, blue-eyed SWAT cop from the warehouse casually leaning against the corner of a building watching her.
Crap.
Where the hell had he materialized from? She’d just come from that direction and hadn’t seen—or smelled—him.
Jayna darted a glance left and right, expecting to see a million cops descending on her, but all she saw were normal, everyday people going about their business. Even more puzzling, she didn’t sense anything bad coming down on her. Ever since going through her change, she’d been able to feel when things were about to go sideways, like they had back in the warehouse. But right now she wasn’t getting that sensation, and it worried the hell out of her. Could an alpha like this SWAT cop somehow block her senses?
She looked back at him, expecting to see him coming toward her. She was surprised to find him still standing exactly where he’d been before, looking way too calm and casual for her taste. In a pair of faded jeans, black motorcycle boots, and a pullover hoodie, he looked good. Damn good. He was even grinning.
She had to admit he had a nice smile…for a cop. His scent was also a lot more interesting than she’d remembered. Had he smelled that delicious back in the warehouse?
Jayna took a small step back and almost fell off the curb. She caught herself, resisting the urge to look around to see how many people had seen her. There was no way she was going to take her eyes off him.
The smile slowly slipped from Officer Hunky’s face, and he took a step in her direction. Panic gripped her. She really liked it more when he smiled. It didn’t make him any less intimidating, but at least she could tell herself that he wasn’t measuring her for a prison jumpsuit.
She slowly edged to the right, but he angled to intercept her. She moved faster, still afraid to take her eyes off him. He moved with her, taking a longer stride, and she gulped at how much ground he was able to cover with those muscular legs of his. What the hell? Why was she thinking about how hot he was? He intended to arrest her and send her to prison for the rest of her life!
Maybe he saw the panic in her eyes or smelled it in the air. Whatever it was, he picked up the pace and in three strides nearly cut the distance between them in half.
The hell with this!
Jayna turned and took off running straight down the middle of the one-way road. She had to dodge around a few angry drivers, but it was better than trying to race through the crowd of people on the sidewalk. She crossed over the next street against the light, running even faster.
Boots thumped the pavement behind her, but she wasn’t too worried. No way in hell could a guy as big and muscular as Officer Hunky catch her. She’d been a fast runner before going through her change, but now she was a freaking gazelle.
Four blocks later, she darted through an alley, then sprinted down the sidewalk on the other side. She glanced over her shoulder and nearly screamed in surprise. The SWAT cop was only a few yards behind her, running with an easy stride and that same lazy grin on his face. With the wind in her face, she hadn’t been able to pick up his scent.
She dug deep and put on every shred of speed she had, not caring who saw. Liam had told her to never run this fast in public, but she doubted Liam had ever been chased by a mountainous werewolf cop who was apparently half-cheetah as well. Screw the rules.
The farther she ran, the more industrial the area became and the fewer people there were on the street. As a criminal running from a cop, that shouldn’t have bothered her, but as a female beta running from an alpha big enough to eat her, it terrified the crap out of her. If she couldn’t get away from him, maybe she should head back into a more crowded area.
She glanced over her shoulder again to see the blue-eyed SWAT cop in the exact same position he’d been in before.
“You’re pretty fast, but I’m faster,” he said. “And since I could do this all day, you might as well stop so I can talk to you.”
Stop so they could talk? He must think she was stupid.
Jayna should have called his bluff and kept running, but she was so pissed off, she stomped on the brakes, forcing him to dodge to the side to avoid crashing into her. She got some satisfaction from the fact that it took him five feet to bring himself to a full stop, and even then he still almost fell on his ass. But he quickly got it together and spun around to face her. She backpedaled as he came toward her.
He immediately stopped and held up his hands. “I’m not going to hurt you—or arrest you. I just want to talk.” He lifted the bottom of his hoodie. “See? No gun.”
There might not be a gun, but there was a mesmerizing expanse of muscles there. Thank God he lowered his shirt or she’d still be staring at them.
“Why aren’t you turning me over to your cop friends right now?” she demanded.
He shrugged. “To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea. But let’s talk anyway.”
The answer was so unexpected—and so honest—that she couldn’t help but believe him. She knew it was stupid, yet something told her the big SWAT cop really wasn’t there to bust her. But just because she thought he wasn’t planning to slap cuffs on her in the next five seconds, that didn’t mean she was going to be friendly.
She folded her arms. “Okay. So talk.”
He looked around at the surrounding buildings with their broken windows and boarded-up doors, and she knew he was thinking this was a crappy place to talk. But it wasn’t like she could invite him back to the loft with her. That would go over so well with her alpha. And she was sure the Albanians would just be delighted.
This is one of the alpha SWAT cops I mentioned. He wants to chat, so could you give us some privacy?
Officer Hunky turned his blue eyes on her. “My bike is parked just a few blocks from here. I was hoping we could go for a ride and find another coffee shop.” When she didn’t answer, he added, “Just to talk, Jayna. I promise.”
Her heart stopped. “How do you know my name?”
He winced, as if realizing he’d let something out of the bag, then ran a hand through his dark blond hair. “Um, yeah. I know your name—at least the name on the debit card you use to buy your lattes. But no one else knows. Not even my pack.”
Again, she didn’t know why, but she believed him. Still, it freaked her out that a man she’d known for all of thirty seconds knew her name—and her debit card number. She was about to ask how the hell he knew when he interrupted her with that charming dimpled grin of his.
“By the way, my name is Eric Becker. And I can give you my credit card number if it makes you feel better.”
She suddenly found herself forgetting her anger and instead thinking about how nice his name was. He looked like an Eric—big, strong, and handsome. And let’s not forget that great smile. Suddenly, Jayna couldn’t remember what it was she’d been concerned about just a few moments earlier.
“So, you okay with the coffee shop idea?” he asked.
If she said no, then what
? He obviously knew where she lived, so even if she could get away from him, he’d only go to the loft and wait for her to show up.
She nodded, gesturing for him to walk ahead of her, then followed as he turned and led her back in the direction they’d come. She kept her distance, still cautious he might try something, though she wasn’t sure what. And as fast as he could move, she wasn’t sure she could stop him if he did try something.
She was surprised when he turned in a public parking lot after a few blocks. But the bigger surprise came when they stopped in front of an expensive-looking red-and-black Harley. That’s when she remembered him saying something about having a bike. She’d been so freaked over him knowing her name, she must have missed that little detail.
He undid the chin straps on the helmet attached to the small square of leather-covered cushion that constituted a backseat. How did he expect her to sit on that? It would be like balancing her butt on a piece of two-by-four. She was just realizing the small seat probably meant she was going to have to put her arms around him if she wanted to stay on the bike when another thought popped into her head.
“Did you park here knowing I’d run this way or is it just coincidence?”
She hoped it was the latter. If this guy was so good that he could figure out which way she was going to run before she even decided herself, she was completely screwed.
He handed her the helmet, then got on the bike. “A little bit of both actually. I was hoping you wouldn’t run, but if you did, I figured it’d be down this way.”
“But how did you know I’d stop?” she asked.
He tilted the bike to the side and used his heel to shove up the kickstand, then turned that devastating smile on her. “Honestly, I expected you to get tired and stop well before we got here. But you’re in better shape than I gave you credit for, and a hell of a lot faster.” He motioned with his chin toward the back of the bike. “Get on. I promise not to bite—unless you ask nicely.”
